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A FIRST BOOK OF 
POETICS 

For Colleges and Advanced Schools 



BY 



MARTHA HALE SHACKFORD, Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 
WELLESLEY COLLEGE 



o**o 



BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO. 

BOSTON, U.S.A. 



«&4 



OCT 1 1906 



Copyright, 1906, 
By MARTHA HALE SHACKFORD. 



Nortoootr $r«5* 

J. S. dishing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

This volume is designed to meet the needs of a class 
in the outline history of English literature, and does 
not attempt to give elaborate statements. Simply- 
worded definitions, abundant illustrations, and a few 
suggestions in regard to supplementary books for further 
study make up the contents of the book. Once in 
possession of the elementary facts in regard to poetry, 
students may be led by the most advanced inductive 
methods to analyze individual poems, and so gradually 
build up a more complete and more independent knowl- 
edge of the details of poetics. 

M. H. S. 



A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 



VERSIFICATION 

Scansion. The scansion of English verse is based 
chiefly upon stress, or accent, not, as in Latin and 
Greek, wholly upon quantity. 

r * r / 

Ex. "Grow rich | in that | which nevjer tak|eth rust]." 

Sidney : Astropkel and Stella. 

In this instance the reader follows the normal pro- 
nunciation of these words in prose, paying little atten- 
tion to the length of the vowels. 

Metre and Rhythm. Rhythm is the recurrence of 
stress at intervals; metre is the regular, or measured, 
recurrence of stress. A verse (a single line of poetry) 
may contain from one to seven stresses. 

Monorneter (mo-nom-e-ter) is a verse of one stress, 
rarely used in English poetry except in sequence with 
longer verses. 

Ex. "We die | 

As your | hours do | and dry| 
Away|." 

HERRICK: To Daffodils. 

Dimeter (df m-e-ter) is verse of two stresses. 

"Her pret)ty feet| 
Like snails | did creep|." 

HERRICK: On Mistress Susan Southwell: Her Feet. 

I 



2 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Trimeter (trim-e-ter) is verse of three stresses. 

Ex. " Then wel|come each { rebuff | 

That turns | earth's smooth] ness rough)." 

Browning: Rabbi Ben Ezra. 

Tetrameter (te-tram-e-ter) is verse of four stresses. 
Ex. "His thoughts | were high|er than | the hills]." 

Dyer: Cynthia. 

Pentameter (pen-tam-e-ter) is verse of five stresses. 

/ / / / • 

Ex. "And gath|ering swal|lows twit[ter in | the skies. |" 

Keats : Ode to Autumn. 

Hexameter (hex-am-e-ter) is verse of six stresses. 

/ r / / / 

Ex. " Tibur is | beautiful, | too, and the | orchard | slopes, 
and the | Anio]." 

CLOUGH : Amours de Voyage. 

Heptameter (hep-tam-e-ter) is verse of seven stresses. 

Ex. "The fal|ling out | of faith[ful friends | renewing is 
of love|." 

Edwards: Amantium Irce. 

Place of Stress. A foot is that portion of a verse 
which contains one stressed syllable and one or more 
unstressed syllables. 

An iambus (i-am-bus) is a foot of two syllables in 
which the stress falls upon the second syllable. This is 
the foot most frequent in English verse. 

Ex. "They al|so serve | who on|ly stand | and wait[." 

Milton: On His Blindness. 



VERSIFICATION 3 

A trochee (tro-ke) is a foot of two syllables in which 
the stress falls upon the first syllable. 

Ex. "Willows | whiten, | aspens | quiver]." 

Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott. 

A dactyl (dac-tyl) is a foot of three syllables in which 
the stress falls upon the first syllable. 

Ex. " Bird of the | wilderness | 

Blithesome and | cumberless]. ,, 

Hogg: The Skylark. 

An anapest (an-a-pest) is a foot of three syllables in 
which the stress falls upon the third syllable. 

/ / / / 

Ex. "The Assyrian came down | like a wolf | on the fold)." 

BYRON : The Destruction of Sennacherib. 

A spondee (spon-dee) is a foot of two stressed sylla- 
bles, and is used most frequently in combination with 
the dactyl. 

spondee 

/ / y / / / 

Ex. Silence and | sorrow are | strong and | patient en|dur- 

spondee 

ance is | godlike | . 

Longfellow : Evangeline. 

Other feet less frequently found in English verse and 
imitated from the classics are named below. Defini- 
tions may be found in the dictionary. Amphibrach, 
Amphimacer, Bacchius, Antibacchius, Molossus, and 
Tribrach. 

A verse is called catalectic when one syllable is lack- 
ing in the final foot, acatalectic when the final foot is 
complete. 



4 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Ex. "Russet | lawns and | fallows | gray" — | catalectic. 

Milton: L' Allegro. 

Note. English verse is^ not always absolutely regular, but often allows a 
variety of feet in the same line. 

Ex. Trochee and iambus are frequently combined. 

Notation. In noting the scheme of versification one 
of the following systems may be used. 

I. Stressed syllable represented by letter a, unstressed 
syllable represented by letter x. This is the system 
most used to-day. 

xa = iambus ; ax = trochee ; axx — dactyl ; xxa = anapest. 

II. Stressed syllable represented by acute accent. 

__£== iambus ; ^- _ = trochee ; 
/- =a dactyl ; ^- = anapest. 

III. Stressed syllable represented by macron (_), 
unstressed syllable represented by breve {y\ This is 
an old-fashioned method, borrowed from classical usage 
of marking the length of vowels. 

__ kj = trochee ; \j — = iambus ; 
-w = dactyl ; \j \j — = anapest. 

Rime. Alliteration, or beginning rime, is the repeti- 
tion of the same initial sound, or letter, in two or more 
adjacent words. 

Ex. " And this our life exempt from public haunt, 

Finds tongues in trees, fooks in the running brooks, 
♦Sermons in atones and good in everything." 

Shakespeare : As You Like It. 

Old English poetry (500-1100 a.d.) is written in 
alliterative verse. 



VERSIFICATION 5 

Ex. " Gangan on ^reote ; ^arsecg hlynede," 

(They went along the beach, the ocean roared.) 

Andreas. 

Middle rime, or internal rime, is found where a syl- 
lable in the middle of a verse rimes with a syllable at 
the end of the verse. 

Ex. " Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, 

The glorious sun uprist." 

Coleridge : The Ancient Mariner. 

End rime is the riming of the last stressed syllables 
at the end of successive verses. Rime may be perfect 
in sound and in spelling as well, 

Ex. " And storied windows richly dight, 

Casting a dim religious light." 

Milton: IlPenseroso. 

or perfect in sound only, 

Ex. " Honour and shame from no condition rise, 
Act well thy part, there all the honour lies" 

POPE : Essay on Man. 

or imperfect in sound as well as in spelling, 

Ex. " but since the scope 

Must widen early, is it well to droop ?" 

E. B. BROWNING : Cheerfulness Taught by Reason. 

or imperfect in sound but perfect in spelling, i.e. eye- 
rimes only. 

Ex. " Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among 
I woo, to hear thy even-song." 

MILTON : IlPenseroso. 

Identical rime, riming of the same word, is not 
a^m* :ible in English poetry of the present day, even 



6 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

when the words spelled alike have different meanings, 
as in Chaucer : — 

Ex. " The holy blisful martir for to seke, 

That hem hath holpen, when that they were seke" 

Chaucer: Prologue. 

End rime is called masculine, or single, when the syl- 
lables that rime are the last in each verse; feminine, or 
double, when the last two syllables of each verse rime. 

Ex. " There be none of Beauty's daughters feminine 

With a magic like thee, masculine 

And like music on the waters feminine 

Is thy sweet voice to me" masculine 

BYRON : Stanzas for Music. 

Tone color is the name applied to the repetition of 
the same letter or letters in one or more verses, which 
results in giving a certain unity, or color, to the musical 
tone. In the example below the word Silvia gives the 
key to the sounds that are repeated most frequently, i.e. 
ii s's, 13 Ts, 10 i's, 11 t's. 

"Then to Silvia let us sing, 
That Silvia is excelling ; 
She excels each mortal thing 

Upon the dull earth dwelling : 
To her let us garlands bring.' ' 

Shakespeare : Two Gentlemen of Verona. 

Blank verse is verse without end rime, usually 
written in iambic pentameter without division into 
stanzas. Blank verse may be written in the end- 
stopped line or the run-on line. The latter form is 



VERSIFICATION 7 

more melodious, for it avoids the monotony found in 
lines where there is a pause at the end of each verse. 

Ex. End-stopped line. 

" All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players : 
They have their exits and their entrances ; 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His acts being seven ages." 

Shakespeare : As You Like It. 

Ex. Run-on line. 

" Knowing that Nature never did betray 
The heart that loved her ; 'tis her privilege 
Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
From joy to joy : " 

Wordsworth : Lines Written above Tintern Abbey. 

Stanza. A stanza is a group of two or more con- 
secutive verses bound together by end rime. 1 

A verse is the term applied to a single line of poetry 
and should never be used as synonymous with stanza. 

A couplet is a stanza of two verses. 

The octosyllabic couplet consists of two verses of 
iambic tetrameter, riming. This form is sometimes 
called the short riming couplet. 

Ex. " In notes with many a winding bout 

Of linked sweetness long drawn out." 

Milton: L 'Allegro. 

1 Notation. Letters are used to indicate rime scheme ; thus, a b a b means 
that lines 1 and 3, 2 and 4, rime. 



8 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

An heroic couplet is a stanza of two lines of iambic 
pentameter, riming. It is called heroic because used 
so often in heroic poems such as Chaucer's The Knights 
Tale. 

Ex. " Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll ; 

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul." 

Pope : The Rape of the Lock. 

A tercet is a stanza of three verses. 

Ex. " Whenas in silks my Julia goes, 

Till, then, methinks, how sweetly flows 
That liquefaction of her clothes ! " 

Herrick : Upon Julia's Clothes. 

A quatrain is a stanza of four verses. 
The heroic quatrain is a stanza of four lines of iambic 
pentameter riming a b a b. 

Ex. " The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, a 

And all that beauty, all that wealth, e'er gave, b 

Await alike th' inevitable hour. a 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave." b 

GRAY : Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. 

The ballad stanza is formed as follows : verses one 
and three are iambic tetrameter, verses two and four 
are iambic trimeter. The rime scheme is usually ab cb. 

Ex. " The horse Fair Annet rade upon, a 

He amblit like the wind ; b 

Wi siller he was shod before, c 

Wi burning gowd behind." b 

Lord Thomas and Fair Annet. 

Stanzas of five verses are common. They may have 
various rime schemes. 



VERSIFICATION 9 

Ex. " Within the shadow of the ship a 

I watched their rich attire : b 

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, c 

They coiled and swam ; and every track c 

Was a flash of golden fire." b 

COLERIDGE : The Ancient Mariner. 

Stanzas of six verses are common. They may have 
various rime schemes. 

Ex. " I wandered lonely as a cloud a 

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, b 

When all at once I saw a crowd, a 

A host, of golden daffodils ; b 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, c 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." c 

WORDSWORTH : " I wandered lonely as a cloud" 

Rime royal is a stanza of seven verses of iambic 
pentameter, riming a b a b b c c. This form was much 
used by Chaucer. 

Ex. " Thorgh me men goon in-to that blisful place a 

Of hertes hele and dedly woundes cure ; b 

Thorgh me men goon unto the welle of Grace, a 

Ther grene and lusty May shal ever endure ; b 

This is the wey to al good aventure ; b 

Be glad, thou reder, and thy sorwe of-caste, c 

Al open am I ; passe in, and hy the faste ! " c 

Chaucer : The Par lenient of Foules. 

The Spenserian stanza is a stanza of eight verses of 
iambic pentameter and a ninth verse of iambic hexam- 
eter, riming ababbcbec. The ninth line, iambic 
hexameter, is also called an alexandrine. 



10 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Ex. " A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, a 

Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, b 

Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine, a 
The cruell markes of many a bloody flelde ; b 

Yet armes till that time did he never wield. b 

His angry steede did chide his foming bitt, c 

As much disdayning to the curbe to yield : b 

Full jolly knight he seemd, and fair did sitt, c 

As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt." c 

Spenser : The Faerie Queene. 

The sonnet is a poem of fourteen verses of iambic 
pentameter. Sonnets are of two kinds : the Italian, or 
Petrarchan, sonnet and the English sonnet. 

The rime scheme of the Italian sonnet is as follows : 
the octave, or first eight verses, rime invariably 
a b b a a b b a; the sestet, or last six verses, may rime 
in various ways ; the most common rimes are c d e c d e y 
or c d c d c d. 

Ex, " Earth has not anything to show more fair : a 

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by b 

A sight so touching in its majesty : b 

This City now doth, like a garment, wear a 

The beauty of the morning ; silent, bare, a 

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie b 

Open unto the fields, and to the sky ; b 

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. a 

Never did sun more beautifully steep c 

In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill ; d 

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep ! c 

The river glideth at his own sweet will : d 

Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep ; c 

And all that mighty heart is lying still ! " d 

WORDSWORTH : Composed upon Westminster Bridge. 



VERSIFICATION 1 1 

The English sonnet, considered less perfect artistic- 
ally than the Italian, is made up of three quatrains and 
a couplet, riming a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. 

Ex. " When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, a 
I all alone beweep my outcast state, b 

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, a 
And look upon myself, and curse my fate, b 

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, c 

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd, d 
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, c 

With what I most enjoy contented least; d 

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, e 

Haply I think on thee, and then my state, f 

Like to the lark at break of day arising, e 

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate ; / 
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings g 
That then I scorn to change my state with kings." g 

Shakespeare: Sonnet xxix. 

Refrain is the repetition of the same phrase, or verse 
or verses, in the middle or at the end of a stanza. 

Ex. " Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears 
Her noblest work she classes, O ; 
Her 'prentice han' she tried on man, 
An' then she made the lasses, O. 

u Green grow the rashes, O ; 

Green grow the rashes, O ; 
The sweetest hours that e'er I spent, 
Were spent among the lasses, O ! " 

BURNS : Green Grow the Rashes. 



I 



IMAGERY OR FIGURES 

Poetry and, often, prose depend for greater clearness, 
emphasis, and richness of suggestion upon the introduc- 
tion of concrete pictures, or images, perceived through 
the physical senses. Instead of saying, "As a man 
grows older he grows wiser," Waller said : — 

" The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, 
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made." 

In poetry an abstract truth is rendered best by the 
use of terms familiar to every one, i.e. concrete and 
specific references to the physical world. The follow- 
ing examples will show how poets have succeeded in 
making the abstract more vivid by appeals to common 
sensuous experience. 

Shakespeare, in describing his feeling of age, drew 
pictures which appeal to the reader's sense of form, of 
color, of movement, of sound, and of touch. 

" That time of year thou may'st in me behold 
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 
Bare ruirtd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang" 

Sonnet lxxiii. 

The suffering brought by filial ingratitude is repre- 
sented by an appeal to the sense of touch. 

" How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child ! " 

Shakespeare : King Lear. 

12 



IMAGERY OR FIGURES 13 

The enduring beauty of good deeds is pictured by- 
means of appealing to the sense of smell. 

" Only the actions of the just 
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust." 

SHIRLEY : The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. 

Joy is represented by means of an appeal to the taste. 
"Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine." 

Keats : Ode to Melancholy, 

The use of images in this way gives what is called 
figurative language. The figures used above are all 
metaphors, and the metaphor is one of the earliest as 
well as one of the most popular and effective figures. 
A metaphomevzr states a likeness between two objects 
or ideas by means of the words like or as, it always con- 
siders the two things identical. 

Ex. " A mind content both crown and kingdom is." 

Greene : Farewell to Folly. 

" His 1 fate and fame shall be 
An echo and a light unto eternity." 

Shelley: Adonais. 

Other instances of metaphor are these : — ■ 

" She walks — the lady of my delight — 

A shepherdess of sheep. 
Her flocks are thoughts. She keeps them white ; 

She guards them from the steep. 
She feeds them on the fragrant height, 

And folds them in for sleep." 

MRS. MEYNELL : The Lady of the Lambs. 
1 Keats. 



14 



A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 



" Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, 
My staff of faith to walk upon, 
My scrip of joy, immortal diet, 

My bottle of salvation, 
My gown of glory, hope's true gage ; 
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage." 

Raleigh : His Pilgrimage. 

Simile. In a simile one thing is described by stating 
its similarity to something else usually better known. 
The likeness is always made clear by means of the 
introductory words as or like. 

" Her hair that lay along her back 
Was yellow like ripe corn." 

ROSSETTI : The Blessed Damosel. 

"As for man, his days are as grass : 
As a flower of the field so he flourisheth." 

Psalm ciii. 

" Greyhounds he had, as swift as fowl in flight." 

Chaucer: Prologue. 

"A pardlike 1 Spirit beautiful and swift." 

Shelley: Adonais. 

Epic Simile, or Homeric simile, is an extended simile 
introduced for the sake of greater definiteness and, 
also, for ornament. 

Ex. " Like as an Hynd — forth singled from the heard, 
That hath escaped from a ravenous beast, 
Yet flyes away of her owne feete afeard, 
And every leafe, that shaketh with the least 
Murmurs of winde, her terror hath encreast ; 
So fled fayre Florimell from her vaine feare." 

SPENSER : The Faerie Queene. 
1 Like a leopard. 



IMAGERY OR FIGURES 1 5 

Personification. In this figure an abstract thing is 
given the qualities and powers of a person. 

Ex. " There Honour comes, a pilgrim grey, 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair, 
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there ! " 

Collins : How Sleep the Brave. 

The distinctions between metaphor, simile, and per- 
sonification may be seen in the following quotation : — 

" Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart : 
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea : 
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, 
So didst thou travel on life's common way, 
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart 
The lowliest duties on herself did lay." 

Wordsworth : Sonnet to Milton. 

The first three lines contain similes, the fourth a 
metaphor, the fifth and sixth an instance of personifica- 
tion. 

Hyperbole (hy-per-bo-le) is a statement based upon ex- 
treme exaggeration of truth. 

Ex. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 

Clean from my hand ? No, this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red." 

Shakespeare : Macbeth. 

Synecdoche (syn-^c-do-che) and metonymy (me-t6n- 
y-my) are figures that are frequently confused with 
each other. Both gain a certain vividness of effect by 
focusing the reader's attention upon one very signifi- 



1 6 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

cant aspect of an object. In both the poet substitutes a 
picturesque, definite, and highly suggestive word for the 
more commonplace. In synecdoche the appeal is to the 
reader's sense of the concrete, literal truth. 

Ex. Specific for general. 

" Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold 
Dominion over palm and pine. ,, 

Kipling: Recessional. 

" Palm " and " pine " are more impressive than 
" India " and " Canada " because they suggest the land- 
scape and general condition of each place. 

Ex. Whole for a part. 

" The Tortoise here and Elephant unite, 
Transform^ to combs, the speckled, and the white." 

POPE: The Rape of the Lock. 

Tortoise shell and ivory seem more expensive if one 
is made to remember that they represent, practically, the 
life of a tortoise and of an elephant. In some instances 
it is difficult to tell whether the poet is using whole for a 
part or container for contents. 

Ex. " that fair and warlike form 

In which the majesty of buried Denmark 
Did sometimes march." 

Shakespeare: Hamlet. 

Here " Denmark " is used instead of " King of Den- 
mark." 

Ex. Part for the whole. 

" Cast your plaids, draw your blades." 

SCOTT: Pibroch of Donvil Dhu. 



IMAGERY OR FIGURES 1 7 

" Blades " is more suggestive than " swords " because 
it accentuates the chief quality — sharpness. 

Ex. Definite for indefinite. 

" Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean — roll ! 
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain." 

BYRON : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 

" Ten thousand " is more satisfying than " many " be- 
cause the human mind likes a distinct rather than a 
vague picture. 

Ex. Material for the thing made. 

" Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds." 

Milton : Paradise Lost. 

" Metal " is more forcible than " trumpets " because it 
emphasizes the resonant quality of the instrument. 

In metonymy the reader is expected to reason out the 
truth of what seems at first literally untrue. 

Ex. Cause for effect. 

" Sickness or sword shall cut thee off from thy strength . . . 
or the flight of the spear." 

Beowulf. 

The flight of the spear is not fatal, it is the effect of 
the flight, i.e. the sharp arrival of the spear. 

Ex. Sign for thing signified. 

" Sceptre and crown 
Must tumble down, 
And in the dust be equal made 
With the poor crooked scythe and spade." 

SHIRLEY ; Contention of A j ax and Ulysses. 



1 8 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

" Sceptre and crown " will not literally tumble down ; 
it is the people who wear them, royalty, who must meet 
the peasantry in common death. 

Ex. Container for contents. 

"And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." 

GRAY : Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. 

The fold — an insensate object — cannot be lulled, it 
is the animals within who are lulled to sleep. 
Ex. Abstract for concrete. 

" Three winters cold 
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride." 

Shakespeare : Sonnet civ. 

Pride does not grow on trees, but leaves, which are 
the pride of summer, grow there. 

Allusion is the reference to some well-known person, 
or event, or thing introduced for the sake of emphasis 
or for mere pleasure. 

Ex. Biblical. 

" A Daniel come to judgment ! Yea, a Daniel ! " 

SHAKESPEARE : The Merchant of Venice. 

Classical. 

" Round many western islands have I been 
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold." 

KEATS : Sonnet on Chap7nan's Homer. 

"The Niobe of nations I 1 there she stands." 

Byron: Childe Harold. 
Historical. 

" Immortal dreams that could beguile 
The blind old man 2 of Scio's rocky isle ! " 

BYRON : The Bride of Abydos. 
1 Rome. 2 Homer. 



IMAGERY OR FIGURES 19 

Geographical. 

" spiced dainties, every one, 
From silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon." 

Keats : The Eve of St. Agnes. 

Parallelism is the repetition of the same idea in slightly 
different language. 

Ex. 

" Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 

And Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations." 

Psahn cxlv. 

Ex. " Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, 
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er 
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, 
Which I new pay as if not paid before." 

Shakespeare: Sonnet xxx. 

Repetition of the same word, or root, is frequently 
used for the sake of greater emphasis, as in the quatrain 
above, and also in : — 

Ex. " They hadna' sailed a league, a league, 

A league but barely three." 

Sir Patrick Spens. 

" Surer to prosper than prosperity 
Could have assured us." 

Milton : Paradise Lost. 

Climax is a figure which depends upon grouping 
certain words or phrases in such a way as to lead the 
reader gradually from the less significant to the most 
significant. 

Ex. " A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man." 

Shakespeare : King Lear. 



20 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

" Duncan is in his grave ; 
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well ; 
Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 
Can touch him further." 

Shakespeare: Macbeth. 

Anticlimax. In anticlimax the reader who is expect- 
ing an impressive climax is rewarded by a sudden intro- 
duction of the ridiculous. 

Ex. " Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes, 
And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. 
Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast, 
When husbands, or when lap-dogs breathe their last." 

POPE : The Rape of the Lock. 

Antithesis is a figure which gives an effect of empha- 
sis by placing two ideas, or objects, or persons, in strong 
contrast. 

Ex " What in me is dark 

Illumine, what is low raise and support.' ' 

MiLTON : Paradise Lost. 

"And now a bubble burst, and now a world." 

Pope : Essay on Man. 

"We, 
Half dust, half deity." 

Byron: Manfred. 

Litotes (li-to-tes) affirms a certain truth by means of 
denying its opposite. 

Ex. " My adventurous song, 

That with no middle flight intends to soar." 

MILTON : Paradise Lost. 

i.e. a high flight. 



IMAGERY OR FIGURES 21 

Epithet. In the strictest sense an epithet is a descrip- 
tive adjective applied more than once to the same person 
or thing and so become conventional. 

Ex. " Godlike, much-enduring Ulysses." 

HOMER: Odyssey. 

However, an epithet may be any descriptive adjective 
limiting a noun. 

Ex. " By shallow rivers, to whose falls 

Melodious birds sing madrigals." 

MARLOWE : The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. 

" Wee, modest, crimson- tipped flow'r." 

Burns : To a Daisy. 

Apostrophe is an impassioned address to a person or 
thing. 

Ex. " O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being." 

Shelley : Ode to the West Wind. 

Interrogation is a question asked merely for poetic 
effect. 

Ex. " Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star 

In his steep course ? So long he seems to pause 
On thy bald, awful head, O sovran Blanc ! " 

COLERIDGE : Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni. 

Exclamation is sudden expression of strong conviction 
or feeling. 

Ex. " Happy those early days, when I 

Shin'd in my Angell-infancy ! " 

Vaughan : The Retreate. 

Inversion is a figure of rhetoric intended to make a 
certain idea emphatic by placing important words in an 
unusual order. 



22 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Ex. " To her he vow'd the service of his daies, 
On her he spent the riches of his wit : 
For her he made hymnes of immortal praise, 
Of only her he sung, he thought, he writ." 

Spenser: Astrophel, 

Onomatopoeia (on-o-mat-o-pee-a) seeks to render the 
sense by appropriate imitative words. 

Ex. " The melodies of birds and bees, 

The murmuring of summer seas." 

Shelley : To a Lady with a Guitar. 

" Then shook the hills with thunder riven ; 
Then rush'd the steed, to battle driven ; 
And louder than the bolts of Heaven 
Far flashed the red artillery." 

Campbell: Hohenlinden. 

The Bells, by E. A. Poe, is one of the most famous 
attempts to make an entire poem onomatopoetic. 



LITERARY TYPES 

There are three main classes of poetry, — epic, lyric, 
and dramatic. These classes have been evolved by a 
slow process of growth and change from rude begin- 
nings and are to be recognized partly by means of the 
subject-matter and partly by means of the form of each. 

Epic. 1 An epic is a narrative poem, usually of some 
length. The verse form most frequently employed is 
either blank verse or heroic couplet. 

The main divisions of epic are as follows : — 

Heroic poem. The heroic poem is a recital of a com- 
plete story in which a certain end is won by the martial 
achievements of a hero, celebrated for strength and 
courage. It is one of the oldest and most popular forms 
of poetry. The heroic poem may be a folk epic, i.e. the 
story may have been handed down by oral tradition, 
until some one gave it definite shape in writing. The 
Greek Iliad and our Old English Beowulf are examples 
of the folk epic. 

The heroic poem may be a written epic, composed in 
imitation of a folk epic, by a single author. Virgil's 

1 In these definitions the effort has been to give certain essential facts, while 
leaving much for the student to discover for himself. It is suggested, there- 
fore, that various poems be put into the hands of students for study in order 
that they may make observations for themselves in regard to the following 
topics : setting, characters, plot, episodes and digressions, use of dialogue, 
aphorisms, style (diction and imagery), versification, and purpose. 

23 



24 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

jEneid and Milton's Paradise Lost are examples of the 
written epic. 

Mock Epic. The mock-epic, or mock-heroic, poem, is 
one in which a trivial subject is treated in the grand 
heroic style. 

Ex. Chaucer : The Nun's Pries fs Tale. 
Pope : The Rape of the Lock. 

Metrical Romance. The metrical romance is a tale in 
verse dealing with love, adventure, and mystery. These 
romances were very popular during the middle ages. 
The metrical romance is frequently written in octo- 
syllabic couplets. 

Ex. Mediaeval. Havelok the Dane. 

Modern. Scott : The Lady of the Lake. 

Sometimes the metrical romance is also a romance of 
chivalry, recounting the adventures of a knight who 
sought to fulfill his chivalric vows. His duty was to 
display his strength and honor in the defense of the 
church or in the protection of women. Warfare rang- 
ing from bloody battles to mock tournaments gave him 
abundant opportunity to prove himself a true knight. 

Ex. Mediaeval. Guy of Warwick. 

Mediaeval. Arthur story : Sir Gawain and the 

Green Knight. 
Modern. Scott : Marmion. 

A romance of chivalry may be written in prose. 
Ex. Malory : Le Morte Darthur. 



EPIC POETRY 25 

Ballad. The ballad, frequently classed as lyric, is a 
brief narrative poem, rugged yet musical, which tells in 
vivid fashion certain traditional tales, historical, roman- 
tic, domestic, or supernatural. That the true ballad 
was the work of a people, not of a single author, is 
shown by the constant repetition of the same incidents, 
epithets, imagery, etc., which were common property. 
The ballad probably grew out of the songs that accom- 
panied dancing, the well-known story being chanted by 
one or another of the more musical, while the entire 
company united in singing the refrain. 

The ballad stanza is usually a definite form (see 
page 8). Examples of old ballads handed down orally 
are : — 

Historical : Sir Patrick Spens. 
Romantic : Annie of Lochroyan. 
Domestic : Twa Sisters of Binnorie. 
Supernatural : The Wife of Usher's Well. 

Examples of later ballads — imitation of the old. 

Rossetti : The Kifig's Tragedy. 
Keats : La Belle Dame Sans Merci. 

Allegory. The allegory is a didactic poem, a poem of 
dual purpose, in which the persons represented are to 
be regarded as symbolic of some truth. The outer and 
apparent story is intended to please the reader, the 
inner story is intended to instruct him. 

Ex. Spenser: The Faerie Queene. 

The outer story is a romance of chivalry in which the 
Red Cross Knight goes forth to release the parents of 



26 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Princess Una from a dragon. The inner story is the 
effort of Holiness (R. C. K.) and Truth (Una) to free 
the world (her parents) from sin (dragon). 

A social allegory, such as Langland's Piers Plow- 
man, deals with problems of man's relation to man and 
to the state. 

A religious allegory, such as Dryden's The Hind and 
the Panther, deals with questions of the church. 

A bestiary is a collection of brief allegories in which 
beasts and birds play symbolic parts. This form of 
allegory was very popular during the middle ages. In 
The Whale, a fragment of an old English bestiary, 
mariners (souls) are lured to destruction by the deceits 
of the whale (Satan). 

The allegory may take other forms, lyric or dramatic. 

Ex. The Pearle, an elegy. 

Milton : Comus, a masque. 

It is sometimes combined with satire ; as in Dryden's 
Absalom and Achitophel, which is a satiric political 
allegory. 

Satire. A satire aims to correct certain follies, errors, 
or sins by making them ridiculous. The most distinc- 
tive satire is formal satire, imitated from the Latins, 
which is not so much coherent narrative as witty com- 
mentary upon some person or some event. 

Ex. Dryden's Mac Flecknoe is a malicious attack upon a 
person. 
Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes is a general 

attack upon society. 
Goldsmith's Retaliation is a playful satire upon his 
best friends. 



EPIC POETRY 27 

The Reflective or Philosophical Epic is a recital of a 
poet's meditations. It may be autobiographical, i.e. the 
story of the growth of a poet's mind, as Wordsworth's 
Prelude ; it may be mere disquisition, as Young's Night 
Thoughts, or more formally instructive, as Pope's Essay 
on Criticism. 

The Descriptive Epic is devoted to descriptions of 
nature, accompanied by some reflection. 

Ex. Cowper : The Task. 

Thomson : The Seasons. 

The Idyll is a brief descriptive poem which pictures 
scenes of simple happiness. It is closely connected 
with dramatic poetry. 

Ex. Milton : E Allegro. 

Burns : The Cotter's Saturday Night. 

Formerly the idyll was identified with pastoral, but 
this was due to error. Pastoral poetry, whose aim is to 
show the rustic joys and sorrows of those who guard the 
pasturing herds, may appear in any form, epic, lyric, or 
dramatic. 

Ex. Pastoral idyll. Breton : Phillida and Coridon. 

A Drama 1 is a work, usually intended for production 
upon the stage, in which a complete plot is worked out 
through the action and speech of one or more persons. 

1 In studying drama students should consider such questions as: motif, 
setting (time or place) ; character drawing (differentiation and growth of 
character); plot, sub-plots; use of prose in poetic dramas; division into 
acts and scenes and function of each scene; use of monologue, dialogue; 
versification; style. 



28 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

The French have insisted that the unities of action, 
time, and place should be observed in drama, but English 
dramatists have seldom limited events in a play to the 
prescribed twenty-four hours, nor to a single place. 

Tragedy. A tragedy is a drama in which there is 
always conflict and struggle, sometimes between phys- 
ical forces, sometimes between spiritual forces. Noth- 
ing happens by chance ; all the events are due to the 
will of the main actors, and event is linked to event by 
the strict law of logical cause and effect. Defeat is 
usual for the tragic hero who, in the highest kind of 
tragedy, is the victim of his own misdeeds or false 
judgments. The effect of tragedy upon the spectators 
is to quicken their nobler emotions and to rouse a vivid 
sense of the sublimity of life. Every well-constructed 
tragedy has a clearly marked introduction, a gradual 
rising action, or growing complication of the threads of 
the story, which come to a climax of entanglement, 
usually about the middle of the play. From the climax 
on to the end, the various knots are gradually untied, 
through the falling action, until at the catastrophe, or 
conclusion, all the interests are settled. 

Ex. Physical forces in conflict. Marlowe : Tamberlaine. 

Spiritual forces (and physical also) in conflict. Shake- 
speare : King Lear. 

Comedy. In comedy the aim of the writer is to 
exhibit the various incongruities and inconsistencies in 
human nature and to show the part played in human 
life by accident, or chance. The structure of comedy 



DRAMATIC POETRY 29 

is far less definite and orderly than that of tragedy ; a 
comedy is frequently little more than a sequence of 
scenes loosely connected by the choice of the play- 
wright, not joined irrevocably by the laws of strict 
cause and effect. Tragi-comedy has the most depend- 
ence upon orderly structure and law ; farce is the most 
lawless and inconsequent of the types of comedy. 

Tragi-comedy is comedy in which, for a while, dis- 
asters threaten the chief characters, who are finally 
preserved from evil and made happy. There is usually 
a fairly close resemblance to tragedy in the first half of 
a tragi-comedy. After the tragic climax events are 
worked out with less attention to probability. 

Ex. Shakespeare : The Merchant of Venice. 

Romantic Comedy exhibits the happy chances that 
attend the fortunes of true lovers. Adventure and 
mystery play their part in leading up to a happy 
ending. 

Ex. Shakespeare : As You Like It. 

Comedy of situation, or farce, is comedy in which an 
odd initial situation is made to yield amusement by 
means of multiplied confusions. 

Ex. Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors. 

Melodrama depends upon incidents which are start- 
ling and improbable; it exaggerates the pathetic and 
the comic elements of life ; it shows character as wholly 
good or wholly bad, and makes spectacular effects of 
first importance. 

Ex. The dramatization of Uncle Toni's Cabin. 



30 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Satiric comedy aims to effect reforms by ridiculing 
men and manners. The satire may vary in intensity, 
being sometimes severe and sometimes merely good 
humored. Various names have been given to satiric 
comedy. 

Comedy of manners and comedy of character derive 
their comic effects from the presentation of men's 
weaknesses, errors, deceits, or affectations. 

Ex. Highly satiric. Jonson : Every Man in his Humour. 
Slightly satiric. Sheridan : The School for Scandal. 

Comedy of intrigue is devoted to showing a plotter 
(or plotters) who in planning to attain certain ends 
overreaches himself and wins poetic justice. 

Ex. Highly satiric. Jonson : Volpone. 

Slightly satiric. Goldsmith : She Stoops to Conquer. 

Miracle plays arose from the expansion of the 
dramatic elements in the church service. It is the 
name given to the mediaeval cycles of plays which 
represented the history of the world from the Fall of 
Lucifer to the Last Judgment, by means of simple 
scenes such as Noah's Flood, which is comic; the 
Adoration of the Kings, which is touched with a rude 
spirit of beauty and reverence ; and the tragic scenes of 
the Crucifixion. 

From the simple scenes enacted in the church came 
longer scenes enacted in the churchyard and, finally, 
the plays were presented on wooden scaffolds, or 
pageants, which were dragged from street to street in 
swift succession so that in the course of a day the 



DRAMATIC POETRY 3 1 

people gathered at each street corner saw the entire 
cycle. 

Mystery play is identical with miracle play. The term 
" mystery " was used more in France, while " miracle " 
was used in England. 

Ex. Cycle of miracle plays : The York Plays, 

A morality play is a drama in which abstract per- 
sonages play their parts in presenting a story intended 
to instruct the audience in certain moral truths. 

Ex. Everyman. 

An interlude is a play, loosely constructed, intended 
to entertain an audience, perhaps between courses in a 
feast, perhaps during the intervals of more formal 
amusements. 

Ex. J. Heywood : The Four P's. 

A masque is a dramatic performance depending upon 
elaborate scenic effects, singing, dancing, and recitation. 
The plot is very slight and is frequently based upon 
some bit of classic story. The masque usually was 
given to celebrate some great occasion. 

Ex. Jonson : The Hue and Cry after Cupid. 

An eclogue was primarily a dialogue designed to 
reveal certain phases of pastoral life ; often the eclogue 
is allegorical under its pastoral imagery. 

Ex. Pastoral. Spenser : August Eclogue of The Shep- 
heardes Cale?ider. 

Ex. Allegorical. Spenser : Maye Eclogue of The Shep- 
heardes Calender. 



32 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

An eclogue may deal with other than pastoral subjects. 

Ex. Shenstone : A Culinary Eclogue. 

A chronicle play portrays in dramatic fashion either 
the life of a famous person or the events in a certain 
historical period. 

Ex. Biography : Sir Thomas More. 

History : The Troublesome Reign of King John. 

Lyric. 1 The lyric poem is concerned with the life of 
the spirit. It is brief, musical, and touched with some 
degree of emotion. There are many kinds of lyric 
poetry and numberless verse forms. 

The elegy is a poem lamenting loss, change, or death. 
The early English elegies were pagan in their spirit of 
hopeless desolation ; the later elegies introduce the Chris- 
tian hope of a future life " where losses are restored/ ' 

Ex. Pagan. The Wanderer. 

Christian. Tennyson : In Memoriam. 
Pastoral elegy. Milton : Lycidas. 

Song. A song is intended to be sung and must, 
therefore, contain open vowels and liquid consonants. 
A song may be upon almost any subject. 

Ex. Religious song, or hymn. Addison: The Spacious 
Firmament on High. 
Love song. Burns : My love is like a red, red rose. 
Patriotic song. Howe : The Battle Hymn of the 

Republic. 
Nature lyric. Wordsworth : The Green Linnet. 

1 In lyric poetry a student should note theme (central idea) ; method of 
developing theme (details, specific instances, contrast, cause and effect) ; versi- 
fication (metre, rime scheme, stanza) ; figures ; personality of the author and 
his purpose in writing. 



LYRIC POETRY 33 

Sonnet. Almost any subject may be treated in a 
sonnet, provided that subject may be regarded emo- 
tionally. The favorite topic is love in some phase. 
For structure, etc., see page 10. Often love sonnets 
are grouped in a sonnet-cycle. These were very popu- 
lar during the Elizabethan era. 

Ex. Shakespeare : Sonnets. 

Later, Rossetti : The House of Life. 

The ode is written in celebration of some person or 
thing, or event, or abstract idea. It is characterized by 
exaltation of feeling, elevation of style, and intricate 
irregularity of verse form. 

Ex. Wordsworth : Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, 

A marriage ode is called an epithalamion. 

Ex. Spenser : Epithalamion. 

The English ode permits great variety of versification 
and allows entire freedom to the individual poet, who 
need recognize no law but that of musical expression. 

The Pindaric ode is imitated from the Greek odes of 
Pindar, which were intended for chanting. The Pindaric 
ode consists of a regular series of stanzas, — strophe, 
antistrophe, and epode. The structure of the strophes 
in an individual ode is the same, the antistrophes are 
uniform and so are the epodes. Each ode has its own 
law in regard to the number of verses in a strophe, or 
antistrophe, or epode. 

Ex. Gray : The Progress of Poesy. 

The Horatian ode y imitated from the Latin odes of 



34 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Horace, is characterized by simplicity of structure; 
each stanza is like the preceding stanza, as in any 
lyric. 

Ex. Collins : Ode to Evening. 

The madrigal, rondel, rondeau, ballade, sestina, triolet, 
villanelle, and other forms are imitated from French or 
Italian originals. Definitions of these less common forms 
may be found in the dictionary or in longer treatises on 
poetics mentioned on page 35. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

TREATISES ON POETICS 

*Gayley, C. M., and Scott, F. N. Methods and Materials of Literary 
Criticism. (Valuable bibliography of works concerned with the 
study of literature.) Boston (Ginn), 1901. Vol. 2 in preparation. 

*Gummere, F. B. Handbook of Poetics. Boston (Ginn), 1902. 

*Watts, T. Poetry. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 9th edition. 

Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. (A famous treatise 
that should be familiar to every student of literature.) New 
York (Macmillan), 1898. 

Horace. The Art of Poetry. (Also Vida and Boileau.) Transla- 
tions, ed. A. S. Cook. Boston (Ginn), 1892. 

Hunt, J. H. L. What is Poetry ? Ed. A. S. Cook. Boston (Ginn), 
1893. 

Longinus. On the Sublime. Trans. H. A. Havell. London, 1890. 

Newman, J. H. Essay on Poetry (with reference to Aristotle) . Ed. 
A. S. Cook. Boston (Ginn), 1891. 

Shelley, P. B. A Defense of Poetry. Ed. A. S. Cook. Boston 
(Ginn), 1891. 

Sidney, P. The Defense of Poesy. Ed. A. S. Cook. Boston 
(Ginn), 1890. 

Wordsworth, W. Prefaces. Ed. A. S. George. Boston (Heath), 
1892. 

Coleridge, S. T. Biographia Literaria. Selections edited by A. J. 
George and called Principles of English Criticism. Boston 
(Heath), 1904. 

*Alden, R. M. English Verse. New York (Holt), 1903. 

Corson, H. Primer of English Verse. Boston (Ginn), 1893. 

* = of special value to students. 
35 



36 A FIRST BOOK OF POETICS 

Guest, E. History of English Rhythms. Ed. W. W. Skeat. (Not 
always authoritative.) London, 1882. 

Mayor, J. B. Chapters on English Metre. London, 1882. 

Lanier, S. The Science of English Verse. New York, 1880. 

Lewis, C. M. The Foreign Sources of Modern English Versifica- 
tion. New York (Holt), 1898. 

Saintsbury, G. A History of English Prosody. New York (Mac- 
millan), 1906. 

Schipper, J. Englische Metrik. (Chief authority.) Bonn, 1881-1888. 
2 vols. 

Pater, W. Style (in Appreciations) . New York (Macmillan), 1889. 

Spencer, H. The Philosophy of Style. Ed. F. N. Scott. Boston 
(Allyn & Bacon), 1895, 

BOOKS OF SELECTIONS (WITH SOME VERY VALUABLE 
INTRODUCTIONS) 

Anderson, R. Works of the British Poets. London, 1795-1815. 

14 vols. 
Chalmers, A. Works of the English Poets. London, 1810. 21 vols. 
Arber, E. British Anthologies. (Dunbar to Cowper.) London, 

1891-1901. 10 vols. 
*Ward, T. H. The English Poets. New York (Macmillan), 1901. 

4 vols. 
*Quiller-Couch, A. T. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford, 

1904. 
*Palgrave, F. T. Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics. New 

York (Macmillan), 1901. 2 vols. 
Carpenter, F. I. English Lyric Poetry. (Warwick Library.) New 

York (Scribner), 1897. 
Stedman, E. C. A Victorian Anthology. Boston (Houghton). 
Stedman, E. C. An American Anthology. Boston (Houghton). 
Gosse, E. W. English Odes. New York (Scribner), 1881. 
Sharp, W. Great Odes, English and American. (Canterbury Poets.) 

London, 1887. 
Caine, T. H. Sonnets of Three Centuries. London, 1882. 
Main, D. M. Treasury of English Sonnets. New York (Scribner), 

1881. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 37 

Bailey, J. C. English Elegies. New York (Lane), 1900. 

White, G. Ballades and Rondeaus. (Canterbury Poets.) Lon- 
don, 1887. 

Chambers, E. K. English Pastorals. (Warwick Library.) New 
York (Scribner), 1895. 

Evans, H. A. English Masques. (Warwick Library.) New York 
(Scribner), 1897. 

Smeaton, O. English Satires. (Warwick Library.) New York 
(Scribner), 1899. 

Page, C. H. British Poets. Boston. (Sanborn & Co.) 

Whiteford, R. N. Anthology of English Poetry. Boston. (Sanborn 
&Co.) 



OCT 1 190C 



